ACC All Access: Virginia Tech's Logan Thomas stands by his receivers, works on passing progressions

Thomas on why Demitri Knowles and D.J. Coles were targeted so much against Alabama when they were dropping passes

Thomas on why Demitri Knowles and D.J. Coles were targeted so much against Alabama when they were dropping passes

Coming off the worst passing game of his career last Saturday in a 35-10 loss to No. 1 Alabama, Virginia Tech's Logan Thomas has refrained from lashing out at butterfingered wide receivers or losing his cool in team meetings.

Instead, he's taking a patient approach. He's looking at his own flaws, and doing what he can to correct them, while encouraging his mostly young corps of receivers. He blames the multitude of drops against Alabama on a combination of receiver error and quarterback inefficiency.

"Any time there's drops, it could be a little bit of both," said Thomas, who was 5 of 26 passing for 59 yards and an interception. "It could be just placement by a little bit, but that's something that's easily correctable. We've just got to go put a little bit more work in and we'll be just fine."

Sophomore receiver Demitri Knowles, who had five of Tech's nine drops, struggled more than any other Tech receiver. He was requested by media to participate in post-practice player interviews Tuesday evening, but wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead chose to shield Knowles from interviews. Moorehead wanted Knowles to move on from the Alabama game.

As far as how Thomas reacted to Knowles during the game as the drops mounted, Thomas said he essentially bit his tongue and kept trying to boost Knowles' confidence.

"I just tried to encourage him the entire time," said Thomas, who was also off target on several of his pass attempts. "He's a young guy just like the rest of our receivers pretty much. They just kind of need a little bit of reinforcement. Obviously, they know they messed up, so I don't really need to tell them."

Thomas said the reaction of receivers in the huddle after drops was nothing out of the ordinary. There was a lot of contrition.

"They apologized or whatever, but they've just got to make plays," Thomas said. "I've just got to do my job, and they've got to do theirs."

Thomas said a big part of improving in his job will come if he can start to go through his progressions better. He said against Alabama he would look for his first and second receivers, but he didn't look for third and fourth receivers.

"I think these (receivers) can be as good as they want to be," Thomas said. "I mean...I expect them to work harder this week than they have in the past, even though they've been grinding pretty much all summer and into camp."